By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

The knockout streak is over but light heavyweight Ryon McKenzie improved his winning streak to 11-0 by pulling off an unanimous six round decision over Eric Watkins on Saturday night.

The fight was held at the Turning Stone Resort & Casino in Verona, New York, on the under card of Luis Carlos Abregu’s upsetting seventh round TKO win over previously unbeaten WBC No.1 welterweight Thomas Dulorme.

McKenzie, who got some inspirational words from one of his idols – Roy Jones Jr – after the fight, has now won three straight at Turning Stone since moving from the Bahamas at the beginning of the year to reside in Canastota, New York. He was faster and landed the crisper punches en route to the 59-55, 59-55 and 58-56 scores on the cards of the three judges - Wynn Kintz, Tom Schreck and Don Ackerman, respectively.

“I know I can’t knock out everybody that I meet in the world,” said McKenzie in an interview with The Tribune about snapping his 10-0 TKO streak. “This guy was a lot tougher than I expected, so I’m just happy that I was still able to come out with the knockout.”

In just his fourth year as a pro, McKenzie has been on an impressive road to success and he said Saturday’s performance was just a good test to prove exactly where he’s at in his career.

“The atmosphere was very good out there,” said McKenzie, who has been making a name for himself in New York. “I got a chance to fight on the card of a big WBC fight and although I went the distance, I fought very good and the crowd was quite pleased.”

Neither fighter got knocked down, but McKenzie said he remembered how he rattled Watkins in the first round and that gave him the confidence as he wasn’t able to lose any of the remaining five rounds in the fight.

“When the bell rang for the sixth round, I was getting ready to go another four rounds,” McKenzie said. “That was just how great I felt about the fight. We went after each other in each round, but it was obvious that I wanted it a little more than he did and it showed in the final results of the judges.”

Although he went into the fight with a slight injury to his right knuckle after he scored a sixth round TKO over Borngod Washington in his last fight on September 1 at the Turning Stone Resort, McKenzie said he was prepared to do whatever it took to pull off the victory.

“I wasn’t concerned about the injury because I knew I had to go out there and fight,” he said. “I’m a little sore and it’s swollen, but thank God I came out of it without any serious damage to it. I will have to rest it for a couple of weeks, but if I get a call to fight next month, I will be ready to go.”

Williams intends to get right back in the ring today and continue to prepare for his next fight. But he admitted that he will definitely not put any further pressure on his right hand until he can get it properly checked out and allow it to heal up.

After the fight, Williams said he was surprised when he met Roy Jones Jr, who has captured numerous world titles in the middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight divisions and is the only boxer in history to start his career as a light middleweight (154 lbs) and go on to win a heavyweight title.

Jones Jr, who was named the “Fighter of the Decade” for the 1990s by the Boxing Writers Association of America, got a chance to impart some of his knowledge to McKenzie, who was appreciative of the comments after they both took a photograph together.

“He said he was surprised to see me fighting as a light heavyweight with my height at 6-feet,” McKenzie said. “He told me to continue to work on using my jab and I will definitely be able to be a force in the division. He really likes the way I’m fighting right now. That was good to hear from a legend like Roy Jones Jr.”

McKenzie, who took a leave of absence from his job at the Riu Hotel on Paradise Island, said he is delighted to be in the right place at the right time as he continues his flourishing pro career.